Epidemic Worsens, Hope Wains

In a March 6, 2018 public health report on NPR, Rob Stein reported the grim news on recent CDC statistics: across America, overdoses from opioids increased by an average of 30% in 2017––some areas were as high as 109% while others remained stable at 20%––occurring in every region and every age group of men and women. The latest data could underestimate the overdoses, because many people who overdose never end up in the emergency room (like our son) so are not accounted for.

“We think that the number of people addicted to opioids is relatively stable. But the substances are more dangerous than five years ago,” acting CDC Director Anne Schuchat says. “The margin of error for taking one of these substances is small now and people may not know what they have, due to availability of newer, highly potent illegal opioids, such as fentanyl.”

Sadly, 20 years on in the opioid epidemic, things are still worsening and government policies are doing nothing to help. Declaring it a “health emergency” but failing to fund quality public health care and the long-term recovery expenses that are essential for opiate recovery is creating a false sense of well-being when there is none.

“Emergency room staff need better training to make sure people with substance-use disorder get follow-up addiction treatment,” says Jessica Hulsey Nickel, president and CEO of the Addiction Policy Forum. “Too often, addicts are simply revived and sent home without follow-up care, only to overdose again. We can use this near-death experience—use it as moment to change that person’s life.”

These overdose deaths have contributed significantly to life expectancy in the US dropping for the second year in a row. This is alarming public health officials since life expectancy gives us insight into the health of a nation––the last time we had a drop was during the AIDS epidemic.

In another study about “Deaths of Despair”, Anne Case & Angus Deaton, economists at Princeton University, report “It’s also a crisis in which people are killing themselves in much larger numbers—whites especially. Deaths from alcohol have been rising as well––we think of it all being signs that something is really wrong and it is happening nationwide…The decline of well-paying jobs, security and good benefits may be fueling a sense of frustration and hopelessness,” Case says. “That may be one reason fewer people are getting married and having children outside of marriages.They have a much more fragile existence than they would have had a generation ago. As a result, these deaths are related to the fact that people don’t have the stability and a hope for the future that they might have had in the past.”

Hope for the future––something we all need––something that is increasingly hard to find in our fragmented society. Many, many voices are calling us to return to the basics for sustained human health and growth: real community, true spirituality, public and private integrity, simplicity of lifestyle, and sincere and tangible love for each other: love is a verb

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Author: Jude DiMeglio Trang

My husband, John, and I are parents of a young opiate addict who died of an accidental heroin overdose at 25. These are our credentials for writing and working towards reversing the exponentially rising statistics for opiate addiction and deaths in our country and the world.
View all posts by Jude DiMeglio Trang

About us:

As parents of an opiate addict who lost his life when he was 25, we want to share our experiences openly and honestly with the hope that we can encourage other parents, families, and friends to do the same and help remove the stigma and shame that have perpetuated the opiate epidemic. For parents with children of all ages, we want to make critical information and resources readily available with the goal of preventing other young people from entering the world of opiate addiction with all of its deadly consequences.